On the one hand, commentators moan about the lack of decision-makers, on the other hand, parents love enrolling their children into sessions which 'look' professional: isolated drills, queues and someone shouting at their children.
One parent, when she first came to my gymnastics class, couldn't work out who was in charge: I was stood at one side, watching and thinking. The gymnasts were all exploring and practicing.
(9 years later, the mother has done adult gym with me, and all three of her children have done gymnastics with me, one is now a weightlifter).
Enjoyed, as I do all of your writings, the article. Seem to be advocating for both, technique instruction (perhaps at least some ‘on-air’ drills…) and activities involving defenders in order to develop skilled decision-making. There are CLA researchers and advocates who appear to be indicating that the use of isolated (‘on-air’) technique instruction within the context of team practices be, at the very least, significantly minimized. Creates a conundrum for me: what is the optimal balance?
Researchers write in the theoretical. Very few actually coach. I stopped interacting with them five years ago because they essentially engage in pseudoscience: I said I did something, it worked, we won the game, and his response was maybe his way was better, and there is no way to test this, so it is essentially pseudoscience, as it lacks falsifiability.
The optimal balance is whatever the player/team needs at the moment to create the optimal challenge and continue progressing. Everyone learns and progresses at a different rate. That is the art of coaching which science cannot measure, because research, when actually done correctly, only captures averages and generally disregards the outliers, but sport, at one end, is about producing outlier performances. Start with the game and regress and progress as needed.
On the one hand, commentators moan about the lack of decision-makers, on the other hand, parents love enrolling their children into sessions which 'look' professional: isolated drills, queues and someone shouting at their children.
One parent, when she first came to my gymnastics class, couldn't work out who was in charge: I was stood at one side, watching and thinking. The gymnasts were all exploring and practicing.
(9 years later, the mother has done adult gym with me, and all three of her children have done gymnastics with me, one is now a weightlifter).
Great story!
Enjoyed, as I do all of your writings, the article. Seem to be advocating for both, technique instruction (perhaps at least some ‘on-air’ drills…) and activities involving defenders in order to develop skilled decision-making. There are CLA researchers and advocates who appear to be indicating that the use of isolated (‘on-air’) technique instruction within the context of team practices be, at the very least, significantly minimized. Creates a conundrum for me: what is the optimal balance?
Researchers write in the theoretical. Very few actually coach. I stopped interacting with them five years ago because they essentially engage in pseudoscience: I said I did something, it worked, we won the game, and his response was maybe his way was better, and there is no way to test this, so it is essentially pseudoscience, as it lacks falsifiability.
The optimal balance is whatever the player/team needs at the moment to create the optimal challenge and continue progressing. Everyone learns and progresses at a different rate. That is the art of coaching which science cannot measure, because research, when actually done correctly, only captures averages and generally disregards the outliers, but sport, at one end, is about producing outlier performances. Start with the game and regress and progress as needed.